Fancy Fall

Fall is here and in full swing! We've been very busy here in 5th grade - so busy in fact that we've already made it to conferences!


As a 5th grade teacher - we try to get our students to understand the important responsibility of being a student. Taking responsibility for their work, being responsible for their class items, and taking ownership of their learning & achievement. We support this idea with student-led conferences in the fall.

Student Led Conferences are brand new for students & parents - so we spend a few days allowing the students to practice their presentations before their parents show up. Student-led conferences mean that the student does the talking, they walk their parents through their work, their grades and this year through their data tracking binders. We've been graphing and reflecting and rating our learning so much this year so we have some great growth to show parents!
Each student will walk their parents through their binder/info and then if the parent has a question for the teacher they put a colored cup on the edge of their table to alert the teacher that they're needed!

The cups are color coded for each subject, so we know exactly which teacher they would like to talk to! This process has become so efficient and effective and the kids and parents really seem to love it. It pushes the students to explain their grades and progress to their parents - not the teachers talking their way through! Also, it gives the parents a different perspective on the conference experience and they get their questions answered after they talk to their parents first!
We love it - they love it and we get to run 3 conferences at the same time - seeing ALL of our kids for 20 minutes each!

I'm excited to work through this whirlwind - 3 days of conferences this week!!

We look forward to seeing all of our parents and explaining the amazing things we've been working on!

A land forgotten

I've been a bad blogger - for a while! With updating my classroom website (missbrown5th.weebly.com) and all of the craziness happening here with snow days and make ups - it's completely slipped to the bottom of the priority list. 

Let me update you on some things we've been doing. 

Kindles in the Classroom!                             

 Each student has been expanding their reading life

 by using Kindles to read some top books of 2013! 

 Cross Country Skiing!
We had perfect weather for our skiing trip! Not windy - not too cold and perfect snow!


Currently:
The 5th Graders in Rm. 14 are hard at work on their projects for our annual Reading Tea!
March is READING MONTH - so we are kicking our reading into high gear! Our Reading Tea is next Thursday in the Library - and parents are encouraged to attend if they can! ( I can assure you, you will not be disappointed).

Our Marking Period is coming to a close - so report cards will be going home next week - right before our spring break! :)

I'm sure we could all use some relaxing - now that the weather is resembling something close to spring-ish :)


Miss B.